Willy Vandersteen

Willebrord Jan Frans Maria Vandersteen was born in one of the poorer areas of the Belgian city of Antwerp in 1913. His father was a sculptor and ornament-maker and little "Willy", who had always been fascinated by drawing and sculpting, started out working in his father's studio. At the same time, he took evening classes at the Fine Art Academy of Antwerp. Later he worked in construction as an ornament maker, but when the World Exposition of 1930 signaled a new era in architecture introducing the sober lines of concrete, Willy Vandersteen had to look out for another job.

He became a window-designer for Antwerp's Innovation warehouse. It was there in 1939 that he was first introduced to comics, when his boss handed him an American fashion magazine which featured a fascinating article on 'Comics in your Life'. After that, Willy Vandersteen was determined: he wanted to make comics.

Willy Vandersteen got married to his wife Paula in 1937, and soon had to provide for a family in the barren conditions of the second World War. Nonetheless, he submitted his drawings to the newspaper De Dag, which carried the Wednesday supplement Wonderland, which was mainly filled with American comics like 'Krazy Kat' and 'Mickey Mouse'. The editors were happy to publish a comic by a Belgian artist and on March 26, 1941, Vandersteen's first comic, 'De Lollige Avonturen van Pudifar' (about a cat that looked a lot like Krazy Kat), appeared in print for the first time. 'Pudifar' was succeeded by 'Barabitje', another gag strip about a cat. Vandersteen also introduced the caveman 'Tor' in Wonderland. He signed his work "Wil" and started on a long and productive career in comics.

Soon Willy Vandersteen also worked for the comic magazine Bravo, where he drew 'Simbat de Zeeroover', about a pirate who bore a great resemblance to the later Lambik character. Then 'Thor de Holbewoner', a new version of 'Tor', and 'Lancelot' followed. In 1943, his first album appeared at Ons Volk, called 'Piwo, het Houten Paard'. Two other 'Piwo' albums followed in 1944 and 1946. Vandersteen survived the War working very hard and producing several comics. In the last year of the war, he came up with a comic about a brother and sister, which he called 'Suske en Wiske'. When it appeared in the newspaper De Nieuwe Standaard on March 30, 1945, he was disappointed to see that the editor had renamed the strip 'Rikki en Wiske'. The comic became a success nonetheless.

In the second adventure, 'Op het Eiland Amoras', Rikki was no longer featured. Wiske and her aunt Sidonia met the boy Suske, who replaced Rikki as Wiske's faithful sidekick. (In English, the strip has been published as 'Spike and Suzy'). With the creation of new characters like Lambik and Jerom, the comic soon became so popular, that editors of different newspapers almost literally fought over the right to publish the strip, much to Vandersteen's amazement.

In 1949, Vandersteen's work first appeared in the magazine Tintin. He started out with some gags of 'Lambik', but from 1950, longer adventure stories of 'Suske en Wiske' ('Bob et Bobette') appeared. The international fame of Vandersteen's comic was established. However, due to Hergé's interference, Vandersteen's typical Flemish comic had to be rebuilt and drawn in a more Clear Line style. In addition to the 'Suske en Wiske' stories, Vandersteen also created the gag strip ''t Prinske' ('Altesse Riri') and the epic 'Tijl Uilenspiegel' ('Thyl Ulenspiegel') for the magazine.

In the following decades of productivity, Vandersteen befriended artists like Bob de Moor and Marc Sleen. He expanded his activities by creating various new series, and founding the Vandersteen studios in 1952. Various artists joined his studios throughout the years, such as Paul Geerts, Karel Biddeloo (Bik), Karel Verschuere, Jeff Broeckx, Eugeen Goossens, Karel Boumans and Edward de Rop. Vandersteen drew the first episodes of a series himself, and then handed it over to his assistants.

Another popular creation of Vandersteen was the weekly newspaper strip 'De Familie Snoek' (1945). Vandersteen and his co-workers were also present in the magazine Ons Volkske, where they produced humorous series like 'De Vrolijke Bengels' (1946), 'Het Plezante Cirkus' (1954) and 'De Lustige Zwervers' (1958).

Apart from the humorous comics, Vandersteen also made a great number of more realistic comics, such as the series about the dog 'Bessy' (1952). Based on the success of 'Lassie', the 'Bessy' comic knew a large production for the German market in the 1970s. From 1953 to 1956, Vandersteen created four albums of the Biblical series 'Judi'. Another success was created with 'De Rode Ridder', based on the books by Leopold Vermeiren, in 1959. In the 1960s, new series followed, such as the western 'Karl May' (1962), the aviation comic 'Biggles' (1965) and the Africa series 'Safari' (1969). In 1972, Vandersteen created the series about the two vagabonds 'Robert en Bertrand'.

Some of the side-characters of the 'Suske en Wiske' series got their own spin-off series. Vandersteen had already drawn some gag pages with 'Lambik' for Tintin, but from 1954 to 1963, he created about 350 gags with the character for De Bond. Also 'Jerom' got his own spin-off in 1960, another series that knew a large popularity in Germany. The comic had several incarnations. After ten stories in a "normal" setting, 'Jerom' became the golden stuntman in 1967, and finally in 1982, the series changed to 'De Wonderbare Reizen van Jerom'. In 1986, even Wiske's puppet 'Schanulleke' got its own gag strip.

From 1962 to 1967, Vandersteen and his studios adapted the popular Flemish puppet play 'Pats' to a stop comic. In 1974, a new series of the comic was launched, this time under the name 'Tits'. In 1985, Willy Vandersteen began his final comics series, 'De Geuzen'. He pencilled this series himself until his death in 1990. Willy Vandersteen is survived by his Studio and several of his comic series, which continue to be very popular.

Evelien and Kees Kousemaker welcomed Willy Vandersteen, guest-of-honor at the 1968 opening of Lambiek. Vandersteen, creator of the comic strip character 'Lambik' (in Suske en Wiske), was gracious enough to inform us that we had his blessings, even though we misspelled the name.... Lambiek. :-)